Driving mechanism for endless feed beds of woodworking machines and the like



Jan. 19, 1932. J, KlsTNER 1,841,481

DRIVING MECHANISM FOR ENDLESS FEED BEDS 0F WOODWORKING MACHINES AND THE LIKE Flled Sept 8, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN VEN TOR. J. Kis mer Mf g A TTORNEY.

Jan. 19, 1932. J K|STNER 1,841,481

DRIVING MECHANISM FOR ENDLESS FEED BEES OF WOODWORKING MACHINES AND THE LIKE Filed Sept 8, 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Ill/MIA \W INVENTOR. edceriw Kistngr A TTORN Patented Jan. 19, 1932 unirsfln sirars's PATENT orriics.

'IE'REDERICK J. KISTNER; OF CINCINNATI, OHIO, ASSIGNOR T0 J. A. FAY 8c EGAN 301V :-v

PAIQ'Y, OF CINClId'NATI, 61-110, A CORPORATION OF \VEST;VIRGI1 TIA DRIVING MECHANISM FOR ENDLESS FEED BEDS 0F WOODWORKING MACHINES-AND THE.

Application filed September This invention relates to driving mecha nism for endless feed beds of the type com-. monly used upon; woodworking machines, such as molders, drum sanders, surfacers, matchers, and the like.

One object of this invention is to provide a di'iving'mechanism for endless feed beds which will keep the upper stretch ofithe bed tight, regardless as totthe CllI'ECtlOiLlIl which the nature of the driving mechanism, the invention residing, substantially, in the novel features of construction, combination, location and arrangement of parts.

The invention will now be described by v 4: I way oi eiample and with reference to the annexed drawings, mwlnch- Fig. 1 is a fragmentary view of a molder embodying my invention and illustrated in the vicinity of the endless feed bed,.parts being broken away and parts appearing in vertaken on a plane corresponding, to line 2-2 of Fig. 1; and v F 1g. 3-is an isometric view of'member 22 and sprocket 18, the latter being illustrated by brokenlines; s a

In woodworking machines, such as mold ers, planer matchers, drum sanders, surfacers, and the like having an endless feedbed for advancing stock through the macliine,it has been the common practice to drive said beds from one sprocket only, the remaining sprocket acting as anidler. c p 7 With a drive of this nature, and assuming the bed is pulled in a forward direction, or

in a direction toadvance the stock through 1 the machine, the upper stretch of the bed is travel, to back stock out of the machine, or inthe event the machine becomes jammed, the lower stretch of the bed becomes the tight tionable as the upper stretch supports the work and it has often happened that in reversing the drive of the bed the changeflof' the tight side from the upper stretch-to the lower stretch will cause the bed to strike the pointed end of the outfeed table and damage it or the bed.

I aim by the present invention to overcome all of these disadvantages in the driving mechanism of endless feed beds by utilizin both'sprockets as drivers, one for the forwar feed and one for the reverse feed, thereby keeping the upper stretch of the bed the tight side at all times.

A molder has been selected for purposes of illustration and the drawing has been con-- fined to the endless feed bed and its driving mechanism asit is in the latter unit that the present invention particularly resides.

Referring to Fig. 1, the numeral l designates a portion of the main frame of'the molder, 5 the infeed table, 6the o'utfe'ed table and 7 theendless feed be I This bed comprises in most instances a plurality of closely arranged slats Swhich are secured to lugs 9formed integral with'the' driven double chain 10 by rivets 11. The double chain 10 is trained over the double sprockets 12 and 13, which sprockets are keyed to driven shafts l4 and 15, respectively, as best seen'in Fig. 2. Thesedriven shafts 14 and 15 are rotatably mounted in bearings 16 and 17 carried by the frame 4 and receive the sprockets l8 and l9 which are free to rotate on said shaft.- "Sprocket 18 isprovided with integral lugs 20-20 which engage with the arms 21 21 of member 22 and sprocket 19 is provided with integral lugs 2323 which engage with the arms 24i24 of memher 25, as will be fully explained under Op} 2' eration of the drive mechanism.

Members 22 and 25 are keyed to driven shafts l4 and 15, respectively, and arms with an adjustment set-screw '26 and lock nut 27, as clearly illustrated in Figs. land 2. The driving shaft is indicated by the numeral 28 and is connected to a suitable source 21-21 of said member 22 are each provided its of power, not shown. This shaft 28 is suitably mounted for rotation within the frame 4 and carries a sprocket 29 which is suitably fixed thereto as, for example, by a key 30. Driving chain 31 is trained over sprockets 18, 19 and 29, respectively, as clearly shown in Fig. 1.

As shown in Figs. 2 and again in Fig. 1, the slats 8 of the upper stretch of the chain 10 are supported by bed rails 3232 the ends of which are rounded to insure a smooth motion of the slats when riding upon and off of said rails.

In describing the operation of the improved driving mechanism for the endless bed 7, the forward feed of said bed will be explained first:

Assuming that stock is to be fed through the machine in a forwarddirection (or in a direction as indicated by arrow 33) the driving shaft 28 will be rotated in a clockwise direction, as viewed in Fig. 1, thereby rotating the sprocket 29 in a clockwise direc tion which, in turn, by means of the driving chain 31, rotates the sprockets 18 and 19 in a clockwise direction, which sprockets, as before stated, are loose on shaft 1st and 15, respectively. When the sprockets 18 and 19 are rotated in a clockwise direction the integral lugs 2823 of sprocket 19 are carried against the arms 2 l24rof member 25 and as said member 25 is keyed to shaft 15 said shaft will be likewise rotated in a clockwise direction, thus rotating the double sprocket 13 in a clockwise direction. As the double chain 10 is trained over the double sprockets 12 and 13 it will likewise be moved in the direction indicated by arrow 33 by the clockwise rotation of the double sprocket 13.

During the forward feed of the bed 7 the sprocket 18, being driven in a clockwise direction by orive chain 31, spaces the lugs 202O slightly away from the arms 2121 of member 22, thus causing the sprocket 18 to act as an idler for said chain 31.

To clear the machine, or should any of the stock become jammed in its course through the machine, it is necessary to reverse the direction of travel of said bed 7. In order to reverse the direction in which the chain 10 of bed 7 is driven or in order to drive the upper stretch of the chain 10 in the direction of arrow 35 the driving shaft 28 will be ro tated in an anti-clockwise direction, as viewed in Fig. 1.

Assuming now that the driving shaft 28 is being rotated in an anti-clockwise direction, sprocket 29 will likewise be rotated in an anti clockwise direction and due to the driving chain 31 being trained over said sprocket 29 and sprockets l8 and 19, respectively, said last two-mentioned sprockets will be likewise rotated in an anti-clockwise direction.

With the driving shaft 28 revolving in an anti-clockwise direction the endless bed 7 will travel in the direction indicated by arrow 35, due to the fact that sprocket 18 becomes the driver and sprocket 19 becomes the idler. This is brought about by the integral lugs 20 of sprocket 18 engaging the arms 2121 of member 22, the said member 22 being keyed to the shaft 1%, thus driving the double sprocket 12. W hen the sprocket 18 serves as the driver for the endless bed 7 the integral lugs of member 25 are spaced slightly away from the arms 2d-2a of member 25, the distance being determined between said lugs and said arms by the slack in the endless bed 7. As this slack in 11116 bed increases, due to wear over a period of time, the distance at which the lugs 202() will move away from arms 2l21 of member 22, or the lugs 23 23 away from the arms 24-24 of member 25 can be regulated by the adjustment set-screws 26, the adjustment of which screws is maintained by the lock nuts 27, as clearly shown in Fig. 1. This regulation of the space between the integral lugs of the sprockets 18 and 19 and the arms of members 22 and 25 must be regulated due to the timing between the pressure rollers 3st and the endless bed 7 otherwise if too much space were allowed between the lugs and the arms of said members the bed would. not start at the same time the pressure rollers started and in reversing the feed of said bed this condition would spoil the stock due to the fact that the bed would not be moved until the lugs engaged the arms, during which time the pressure rollers being driven would burn or groove the stock until the bed started to travel. Therefore, the adjustment setscrews are provided for controlling the space between the lugs and the arms to maintain proper timing between the endless bed and the pressure rollers.

From the foregoing description, it will be clearly apparent to those skilled in the art of woodworking machinery that the connection between the driving shaft 28 and the driven shafts 14 and 15 is eff cted through the integral lugs 20-20 of sprocket 18 and arms 21-21 of member 22 when the bed 7 is traveling in a. reverse direction and through the integral lugs 23-23 of sprocket 19 and arms 2424; of member 25 when the bed 7 is advancing or traveling in a forward direction.

To briefly sum up the drive for the endless bed 7 from the driving shaft 28, it may be stated that when the bed is to be advanced or moved in a forward direction, as indicated by arrow 33, it is necessary to rotate the driving shaft 28 in a clockwise direction, at which time the sprocket 19 acts as the driver through the lugs 2323 engaging the arms 24 2 l: of member 25 and when it is desired to reverse the direction of the bed or move it so that the upper stretch travels in the direction of arrow 35, it is necessary to rotate the driving shaft 28 in a clockwise direction,

whereupon the sprocket '18 becomes the driver through the integral lugs 20 engaging the arms 21-21 of member 22, at which time the sprocket 19-becomes the idler. Thus it will be seen that the upper stretch of the endless bed or that portion of the bed upon which the stock rests is pulled at all times, regardless as to whether the bed is traveling forward, as indicated by arrow 33, or rearwardly, as indicated by arrow 35.

vVhile a single illustrative embodiment of my invention has been shown and explained, it'is evident that modifications and changes i may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and I do not, therefore, confine myselfto the details of construc tion herein set forth.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. In a woodworking machine having an endless feed bed of the class wherein an endless chain of transverse slats is rotatably supported upon a pair of sprockets, the upper stretch of the chain being rigidly supported in a horizontal plane throughout substantially itsv straight way length by bed rails tially its entire straight way length charac teriZed by the fact that there is combined with said driving mechanism means fixed for rotation with each of said sprockets,movable means adapted to coact with said last-mentioned means whereby said upper stretch of o the chain is pulled during the forward and reverse feeds, respectively.

3. In a driving mechanism for woodworking machines, the combination with an endless feedbed,composedof a plurality of trans verse slats fixed to a driven chain, rotary means for supporting and driving said chain comprising a pair of sprockets, shafts fixed to said sprockets, respectively, a second pair of sprockets freely mounted upon said shafts, respectively, lugs on said last-mentioned sproc rets, driving members fixed to said shafts and adapted to engage said lugs on said second-mentioned sprockets, and means for rotating said second-mentioned sprockets in a clockwise and anti-clockwise direction whereby during the clockwise rotation of'said second-mentioned sprockets, certain of said members to pull the upper stretch of said bed in a forward direction, and whereby during the anti-clockwise rotation of said secondmentioned sprockets other of said lugs thereof engage other of said driving members to pullthe upper stretch of said bed in a reverse direction.

4. In a driving mechanism for endless feed beds of the class wherein an endless chain of transverse slats is rotatably supported, the

upper stretch of the chain being supported by bed rails and driving means for the chain characterized by the fact that there is combinedwith said driving means,-means whereby said upper stretch of the chain is pulled during the forward and reverse feeds, respectively, comprising a pair of sprockets, a pair of shafts fixed to said sprockets, respectively, driven means freely mounted upon said shafts, respectively, lugs on said lastmentioned means, driving members fixed to said shafts, arms on said members adapted to engage with said lugs and means for rotating said driven means in a clockwise and anti-clockwise direction, whereby during the clockwise rotation of said driven means certain of said lugs thereof engage certain of said arms to pull the upper stretch of said bed in a forward direction, and whereby during the anti-clockwise rotation of said driven means other of said lu s thereof engage other of said arms to pull the upper stretch of said bed in a reverse direction.

5. A driving mechanism as specified in claim 3, wherein the means for rotating the second-mentioned sprockets comprises a driving sprocket, a driving shaft fixed thereto and an endless drive chain trained over said driving sprocket and said second-mentioned sprockets.

FREDERICK J. KISTNER.

' lugsthereof engage certain of said driving 

